THE second DTS beach volleyball tournament for the year took place last Saturday, with seventeen four-a-side and eighteen two-a-side teams participating in the 2012 Series.

The Junior Ladies category catered for girls aged between 14 and 18 years and saw 3 teams participating. After winning 2 matches, Clara Hassenpflug and Jana Rumpf took first place, while Saskia Henckert and Melissa Kring came in second place, followed by Carmen Curschmann and Annika Schmidt von Wuehlisch in third.
In contrast to previous tournaments, this year’s junior category was integrated into the men’s competition, where 8 teams played in a double elimination format. The second seeded team of Achim Lueck and Peter Brinkmann had no problems reaching the finals where they beat the upcoming junior team of Gero Talkenberg and Bernhard Schurz in the semi-finals, winning by two sets to nil.
In the second semi-final of the day, the first-seeded pair of Joern Landsrath and Rector Mbeha faced Deon Cloete and Ruben Delie of the Korean Motor Spares team. The team of Landsrath and Mbeha playing together for the first time, won the first set comfortably, but Cloete and Delie quickly equalised to take the score to one-all. The decisive third set saw the experienced team of Cloete and Delie beating the favourites and winning the match by 2 sets to 1 and thus qualifying for the finals.
In a thrilling final played under floodlights, Brinkmann and Lueck showed off their skills and beat the Korean Motor Spares team by 2-1 sets. Third place went to Landsrath and Mbeha. The 4-a-side social category saw 17 teams entering, but due to rain some teams did not show up. Cats & Dogs, The Other Guys, The Nutz and Juxta proved the best four teams and qualified for the semi-finals.
Last year’s champions, Cats & Dogs surprisingly lost against Other Guys, while Juxta beat The Nutz to set up a final between two teams that never won a tournament. Team Juxta went unbeaten and won the tournament by 2-0 sets. Third place went to Cats & Dogs.
The Ladies’ category saw 7 teams competing, with the defending champions Wiebke Hoeritzauer and Brigitte Looser once again showing off their skill by easily progressing to the final after defeating Antje Kesselmann and Elina Veijo by 2-0 sets. In the second semi final, the third seeded team of Karin Curschmann and Anita Kinder faced the fourth-seeded team of Teja Lueck and Rosi Hennes. After a tight match, the experienced veteran team of Curschmann and Kinder won by 2-1 sets and qualified for
the final.
Hoeritzauer and Looser proved too strong and managed to win comfortably with 2-0 sets and once again driving away with a Sportscar sponsored by KIA Motors which they can drive until the next tournament. Third prize went to Kesselmann/Veijo.
The twins of team Juxta, Muna & Tara Katupose were voted as the FX FITNESS Most Athletic Male Players of the tournament while Dietlind Foerster was chosen as the FX FITNESS Most Athletic Female Player of the tournament.
Next tournament will be on 16 June in Windhoek at DTS